During the 2004 election cycle, Republicans courted would-be voters by lavishing them with promises of a future America where traditional American values reigned supreme. The ultimate proposal came as an auspicious opportunity for conservatives to overlay their religious tenets onto their more secular counterparts.

For voters who are usually too lazy to do anything other than sit at home and complain, the opportunity to renew their love of country by defeating the key issue of the gay rights movement proved encouragement enough to roll to the polls. It was truly a marriage made in heaven.

In all, Republicans added constitutional amendments banning gay marriage to the ballots of 11 states and successfully increased turnout among religious sticklers on the Right. The Republican's 2004 success was twofold; they increased support for conservative candidates in the states which offered the anti-gay ballot initiatives while simultaneously crippling the gay rights movement. Republican hearts across America skipped a beat.

But the Right's demagoguery of the gay marriage issue was a cheap, albeit effective, strategy for garnering votes and had a lasting effect on many in the gay community. After the election, Matt Foreman, then executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said "I don't think we could win the freedoms of assembly, speech, religion or the press in most states at the ballot box -- let alone desegregated schools, the freedom to marry people of another race, or access to contraception."

Fast forward to this past weekend where a CPAC straw poll revealed that only 1% of respondents now view stopping gay marriage as a top priority. To some in the gay community, this may be interpreted as a defeat of the anti-gay agenda and a re-prioritization of key conservative issues. To others, it is proof that the evangelical tirades targeting them in the 2004 election cycle were void of any true conviction.

Regardless of which interpretation of the straw poll is closer to the truth, the fact remains that the Republican 2004 campaign inflicted severe and lasting damage to the gay rights movement. This is not to say that a person who is gay or lesbian won't choose to be an independent, or even a Libertarian, but a Republican? Seriously?

The group GOProud is the latest Republican gay and lesbian outreach organization intent on wooing the Republican Party and forcing conservatives to love them. But with love comes sex. And many in the Bible thumpin' wing of the Republican Party still view homosexuality as a perversion.

GOProud Chairman Christopher Barron attempted to skirt around the whole 'sexuality' issue by saying, "It's the ultimate Washington power grab to say let's have a federal constitutional amendment that will federalize the question of marriage."

Barron wants to transform the gay rights issue into a states rights issue and use that rationale to wiggle his way back into the arms of a party which has, time and time again, rejected his overtures. But the issue is now, and has always been, one of sexuality. And I am sorry to be the one to tell you this Mr Barron, but the Republican Party is just not that into you.

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